The Equus Bass Is the Ultimate Motown Mashup Car

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The Equus Bass Is the Ultimate Motown Mashup Car

Click through the gallery above. What do you see? Shades of Mustang, for sure. But there's some Camaro in there, too. And maybe a dash of Dodge Challenger. If all those cars came together in some glorious mishmash of DNA and horsepower, this is what you'd have: the Equus Bass 770.

It's a new muscle car from Detroit, but it isn't from one of the Big Three. Instead, it's built in a shop in Rochester Hills, Michigan by a team of engineers and designers that want to combine the classic stylings of the '60s and '70s with the high-tech suspension, manufacturing techniques, and pavement-rippling power of a modern super car.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but by combining so many different inspirations, the Equus comes off as a bastardized hodgepodge of Americana, with angles and lines and creases that barely form a cohesive whole. The less said the better. And anyway, like mama always said, "It's what inside that counts."

Equus didn't just rip apart an aging 'Stang, throw on some new sheetmetal, and slap in a big engine. Over six years they designed and built a custom aluminum chassis from the ground up, then coated it in carbon fiber from the floorboard to the body panels. All that engineering makes it incredibly stiff and reasonably lightweight, with the fully-dressed Bass 770 tipping the scales at 3,640 pounds.

Under that massive hood resides a supercharged 6.2-liter Chevy small block – the same engine fitted to the over-endowed Corvette ZR1 – good for 640 horsepower, 605 pound-feet of torque, and a claimed 0-60 mph time of 3.4 seconds. Oh, and a 200 mph top speed.

To keep the weight balanced for the best handling, Equus did something generally reserved for super cars: It mounted the transmission out back, between the rear wheels, with a compact, dual-clutch manual gearbox serving up six gears. More hardcore gear has been fitted at each corner, with Magnetic Ride Control suspension, adaptive traction control, tire pressure monitoring, and a variable-ratio power steering system that tightens the rack when you start laying into the long pedal. Carbon ceramic disc brakes are fitted behind the 19-inch wheels, each bigger than the tires on a Corolla.

In order to sell the Bass in the states, it gets driver and passenger side airbags, along with an interior that can be completely customized to include everything from cruise control to a sat-nav equipped infotainment system. But the amenities pale in comparison to the build quality on the inside, with milled aluminum gauges, custom switchgear, leather sports seats, and alcantara lining all the right touch spots.

The cost of all this Motown hotness? It starts at $253,000 and runs up to $290k depending on the specs. Deliveries are expected to begin this month, so add it to your Amazon wish list now before the holidays are upon us and your family starts asking what you want.